This has probably been discussed to death here, and I am sorry to bring it up again.
I'm a long time CW user, currently running a copy of Sonar X2 on a Win 7 DAW.  I have yet to move to CW by BandLab (CWbBL), because i wanted to see how things progressed.  I'm now thinking I should get CWbBL, and I'm hoping some here can answer some questions I have.
1)  It seems I need to keep my copy of CW Sonar X2 so the plug-in FXs and VIs are available to CWbBL - is that correct?  This may sound stupid, but is it possible once CWbBL is up and running to get it to recognize and run all the plug-ins without CW Sonar X2?
2)  When I download and install CWbBL, what exactly gets installed?  Where in my OS does it get installed?  Can I specify a location on my hard drive for the install?  If possible, I would like to avoid having duplicate folders from two different CW install.
3)  Any words of advice before downloading and installing?
 
Thanks
 

1. Yes, it'll recognise them all - just make sure you add the VST paths in the same way as they're set within X2
 
2. It just installs the core cakewalk program, plus the shared utilities & TTS. There are additional downloads for:

• Studio Instruments Suite
• Drum Replacer
• Melodyne Essentials trial
• Theme Editor

It installs Cakewalk alongside Sonar. So instead of C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Sonar X2\ it'll be C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\
 
3. Just don't uninstall X2 !
 
 
 

Do a custom install and you can specify folders for some of the items like VST locations. You may not be able to avoid some duplication during in the install, but afterwards you can consolidate your "Cakewalk Content" into a single folder (with your existing content) and point CWBl to it in Preferences>Folder Locations.  There will still be a separate folder in there called Cakewalk Core, but at least everything's in roughly the same place.

also, does cbb or the assistant app need google chrome to be installed, or is that just for the website?

Neither CbB nor the Assistant require any external applications.
 
BbAltered, I would not be too concerned about where you install CbB. It is quite small compared to SONAR because it does not include sample-based instruments such as Dimension Pro/Rapture. It's less than 100 MB.

Also, CbB is 64-bit only.

Thank you all for your helpful replies.  Again, I am sorry to revisit a topic that is now old.   I have never been the one to jump on every new upgrade; I prefer to wait and let everyone figure out where the problems are.  The impression I am getting is that CWbBL is a solid performer.
 
Thanks again.

Correct impression, that! And if at first CbB doesn't see all your plug-ins, be patient, it's a simple matter to go into Preferences and tell it what folder to find them in.
 
Welcome to the CbB club, I think you'll be quite pleased with the upgrade, in features, speed, and stability.

I am a new comer to BandLab, do I still need to pay an annual subscription to receive updates to Sonar Professional

No. Updates to SONAR were stopped when Gibson shutdown Cakewalk in Nov 2017.